Thursday, October 1, 1998 Published at 13:33 GMT 14:33 UKUKWhere is the most boring place on earth? Your reaction
I think the most boring place I have ever been to is the Heathrow Airport public viewing platform! There are people sat up there with packed lunches, binoculars and CB radios checking for planes, that they think they haven't already seen, in their notebooks and guides. It's cold, drizzling, and there is just a constant stream of screaming planes taking off. A few brain dead sparrows beg for crumbs. Exciting? I think not!!! Kristy, Oxford, England

Well, I guess it's all relative. But I've never been anywhere that's got me completely bored. You can always find something to keep yourself occupied. Boredom is a state of mind, after all. Having said that, the LEAST INTERESTING place for me was a semi-submersible oil rig, 100 miles off the coast of northern Sakhalin Island, in the Sea of Okhotsk. It got so bad after four weeks, it gave me a psychosomatic toothache. Duncan Barr, Perth, Australia

If "boring" is synonymous with inactivity, I'd have to say a certain bedroom located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue qualifies.
Dave, Florida, USA

The absolute most boring place on earth without a doubt is Wilson Borough,PA,USA.
Marcus O'Dell, USA

Allendale, New Jersey, USA.
The only interesting thing to happen there was when someone stole the police sign in 1984.
The sign was later found in Ridgewood, NJ, which itself is pretty boring. At least one person in Ridgewood tried to liven the place up.
Joe Donohue,
USA

Redditch 'officially'. Yet another new town like Telford, it won an award for the most boring postcard in the UK. The postcard illustrated the town centre's bus station. Need I say
more? James McCormack, England

The most boring place I have ever been to is Bognor Regis. Stephen Harrison, UK

I have to nominate Rainham (Kent) and its housing estates. The focus of life in Rainham is either the library or the small Tesco's. The Kent Coast sea view consists of a great view of the oil refinery on the Isle of Grain, the sea air is stale, clammy and full of London pollution, and the nearest thing to sea beaches is the mud flats. If you want to go for a walk, there are endless roads filled with houses, but you will eventually come out either by the motorway or a busy main road. Gerry Martin, England

It has to be Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. It's flat; in fact it's so flat that you could almost believe the world isn't round. There's two seasons, winter when it rarely rises above -20'C, and frequently heads down towards -60'C with the wind chill. In the summer it's hot, stifling and the bugs come out. There's no in between. You're also about a day's drive away from anywhere with some nightlife. If I ever go there again it'll be too soon. Dylan Littlewood (another British ex-pat), Vancouver Island, Canada

The three most boring places: 1. Dallas, Texas - at least 600 miles to anything remotely interesting. 2. All of Belgium - too interested in internal racism and beer to be of interest to anyone else. 3. Anywhere north of Watford, England. Mike Graham, USA

I have to wholeheartedly agree that Norfolk and the rest of the Fenlands are completely dull; not merely dull because of the lack of interesting and stimulating pastimes to experience, but geographically too. Completely flat, monotone horizons where its usually gloomy, overcast and damp. The people usually have very little to say and when they do it's usually biased, ill-informed generalisations. You get the feeling that they still believe that the next village is on the other side of the world and they might fall off if they ever went there.
I speak from experience as this is where my mother's family is from and I was forced to spend at least three weeks a year there as a child. The most exciting thing I've ever seen in Norfolk is a bent lamp post.
Hugo Zee.

The most boring place on earth is Telford in Shropshire. It is a new town built solely for business and with no regard whatsoever for anybody with an ounce of humanity. The housing estates look like they were designed by three-year olds and everywhere looks the same. There is an indoor shopping centre that is called the town centre but it is not a town. It is a shopping mall with very average shops that close early evening, meaning that anyone who needs to get from the train station to the bus station has to walk several hundred yards, possibly at the mercy of muggers. There is no art gallery, no decent bookshop, no community and the local theatre welcomes at best 3rd rate artists. Their publicity material uses a many years' old picture of Ruby Wax. I've been here ten years and I don't remember her here. The place suffers from some of the lowest wages in the country and is covered in litter. It is just a labour farm. Do you remember the TV ads for Telford years ago? What a joke! Colin Gaunt, UK

Any small American town, I can't tell the difference between any of them. Steven, USA

Houston, Texas is one of the most boring places on earth unless you like shopping in big malls. These have two uses, besides somewhere for your kids to go and hang out (not that I have any, so in my case it doesn't apply). Shopping in Houston is very economical, goods being considerably cheaper than in England. And they provide a source air conditioned comfort during the long, hot, humid summer months, all 12 of them. As I write it is 98 degrees and October.
There is nowhere to walk unless you want to join the "power-walkers" around the few dirt tracks provided for that purpose. And, in any case, you'll be bitten to death by giant mosquitos, so you wouldn't want to go out anyway. Don't try and walk to the shops. Pavements are not provided and you'll find yourself shinning up over concrete dividers and wading through ditches (look out for those snakes!).
Entertainment is non-existent unless you like rodeos and chilli cook-outs. Content yourself with shuffling (you'll lose the use of your lower limbs eventually) from home to your car to work, back to your car and then home again. For fun, read a good book. Watch a movie. Write someone a letter telling them how awful it is living in Texas. That always helps. Marilyn Connell, USA

Yikes, this may not go down too well, but Canada is a rather boring place. I used to think that Canadians were wrong when they complained that this country had no identity of its own, but they have since convinced me!
Strip Plaza's and Shopping Malls. Straight roads and traffic jams. Night life is very limited and Theatre culture is the latest musical. The people are hard pressed to understand a well turned phrase and the "sitcom" is king of prime time. If I hear one more deejay hack out more forced laughter, I'm going to break my radio.
They cannot go from the stupid to the sublime, because there is no sublime in Canada, it all went south, were it got shot trying to buy a six pack in a late night smoke shop! All I want is a decent chat in a decent pub with a decent beer. I'll forget the theatre, but how about a windy road and a car with some soul. I'll trade the content for a well turned phrase. I'll burn the malls for a wet high street and a decent bakers! Roy, Canada - Ex Pat Brit

Texas is the most boring place I've ever been to, and I've lived in four countries on three continents, and travelled the world extensively.
Those who say that nowhere is boring or only unintelligent people find places boring need to get out more! Bob Springate, USA

Doha, Capital of Qatar, in the Middle East is THE most boring place in the World. There are no Theatres, Cinemas, Cultural Centres (apart from the Pearl 'Museum' in the Holiday Inn reception), Bars, Restaurants (apart from, yes, the Holiday Inn).
The outside temperature is rarely less than 40 C, the sea is polluted, and the locals very unfriendly (though rich). They drive around the desert in Toyota Land Cruisers chasing camels for kicks, but it's not enough. Don't go there or accept a job there, however much money you're offered. Steve, UK

I'd have to say, from my limited travels, that I feel that the state of New Jersey (U.S.) is the most boring place on earth.
New Jersey is a giant mass of suburban sprawl, dotted with the occasional shopping mall, and cut into tiny sub-divisions by an inordinate number of highways. Even New Jersey residents described the location of their homes by the relationship relative to the closest highway exit ramp.
And to make matters even worse, New Jersey has a (quite well deserved) reputation for having a rude populace. And they have bad hair too! They can have New Jersey... I'll stick with Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the SECOND most boring place on earth! Matt Blasick, United States

Have not the locals in Norfolk proved Mrs Wilson's point by their reaction and boorish tactics? Colin How, UK

I recall spending a miserable couple of hours at Nuneaton station in Warwickshire, one January night, in the snow and wind. Whether boring is more approprate than desolate as a descriptor I don't know. However, it must be a contender.
As for Norfolk being boring, well long may its reputation last. It ensures quiet remote beaches, with a minimum of people! Matthew, New Zealand

Moscow. The city itself isn't so bad, but get out into some those housing complexes that dot the tundra, and you've got the miserable place on earth. Paul Barufaldi, USA

The most boring place in the world is London. I hate it. Hazza, UK

I agree Telford is extremely dull but it is positively lively compared to Milton Keynes with all the straight roads and roundabouts. Has anyone ever heard a Milton Keynes accent? Guy Rogers, England

The most boring place in the world is anywhere where I don't want to be: bus stops, waiting rooms, the office, conferences, supermarkets, Workington. Rod Maxwell, Scotland

One determines by oneself where one is bored to death. If one has something interesting to do, it does not matter where one lives or works - one will have a joyful life even in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Felix Polianski, Latvia

Abbotsford, BC tops the list for the most boring place in which to be incarcerated. Having spent 22 years in this city has been a complete waste of a third of my lifetime. Pat Doyle, Canada

My vote goes to the town of Canby in the state of Oregon, USA. Perhaps it's different now, but as a child I visited there and found it far less inspiring than many tiny villages in Mexico, which I had also been through on a recent trip by car while on the way to Mexico City. A close runner-up would be most of the state of Texas! Doug, USA

I tend to agree that the grass is always greener etc. Having lived on several continents and travelled to the "four corners" I have to agree that on the whole the USA is, if not the most boring, certainly one of the most boring places in the universe. This is not because the US doesn't have anything to offer, it's because the US is the king of kitsch and obsessed with the material. Also everyone in the US wants to be from somewhere else, hence, millions of Italian/Greek/Irish Americans but absolutely no American Americans. Geoff, USA

The House of Representatives in Washington, DC, 50 minutes into a Clinton State of the Union address. Elizabeth Miller, California, USA

Washington has to be the most boring place on earth. Every day it's the same old corruption and the same old speeches from the people that we've learned to distrust. Nothing ever changes in Washington. L Dotson, USA

Perth, Western Australia is just sooooooooooooo dull! As the locals will tell you: 'It's not the end of the earth, but it sure as hell has the same zip code'. B Loganski, Australia

The most boring inhabited area on the planet (parts of the Australian Outback came first to mind, but that's too easy) is the North American region that encompasses North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, southern Manitoba and the western half of Minnesota. Flat as a pancake for as far as the eye can see, with a declining population that for the most part still adheres to ultra-provincial attitudes. There's snow on the ground for up to six or seven months a year, which only serves to make the flat, monotonous, mostly treeless landscape look even bleaker. Brett Fechheimer, USA

The most boring place on earth is in front of the television. Bart Gruzalski, Northern California

BASINGSTOKE! Without any doubt, this is the most boring place on the planet. Reading, Berkshire, would run a close second, followed by Koln in Germany, third.
I don't like being negative, so here is a list, in descending order, of the least boring places: Fremantle (Australia), Swindon (UK), and, rather oddly, Portsmouth (UK). John Cox, Perth, Australia

When I was living and working in Huntsville, Alabama, USA, someone in a more advanced state of boredom at work than me had looked up the slang word 'dullsville' in a standard American dictionary, or maybe they had been idly reading the dictionary. Anyhow, the word-use example following the word definition said something like, '...dullsville, as in Huntsville.' Someone really bored could drive over to Huntsville, Texas and see if that Huntsville was the one intended by the dictionary. Nah, that would be too boring. Ben Harman, USA

Definitely Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I've lived here almost twenty years and I'm dying of sensory deprivation. It's a company town, where almost everybody is a right wing, reactionary clone of the other guy, and what little culture there is, is cliquey and incestuous. All of the friends I've known here have left (as well as those I'd have liked to get to know) and I'm starting to see the writing on the wall too. The winters are obscene; the streets are rarely cleared of snow because people don't want to pay more taxes. And everybody's into line dancing and swing music. Stephen Gilmour, Canada

Boredom has a variety of flavours. The most intolerable boredom associated with terror is sitting in a hospital emergency room awaiting the disposition of a loved one. Time lasts forever, and one cannot even gather the presence of mind to read a magazine; waiting for one's own impending emergency services when one is completely helpless is equally boring. For the most boring of the sleep inducing variety I think church services win hands down, but on the other hand it is a good place to practice sleeping with one's eyes open, a useful skill for judges and politicians. Vermont, USA, America's leading slum with trees, I think qualifies behind Alaska, as it too is replete with binge drinking, unemployable wife beaters (highest rate in the country), thousands of jean-wearing, pistol waving, bearded, 12-step recovery, dropout ex-convicts per square yard, with over a dozen prison camps and work release programmes from which the convicted criminal tourist may choose. There is exactly one taxi cab service in the state capitol, and two movie theatres. The local amateur theatre troupe is equally delightful: I believe that they actually conducted a revival of (where is my revolver with a single bullet?) "The Fantasticks." It is worse than the old "Bob Newhart Show," and is the most boring all around place on earth. Walt O'Brien, USA

My 13-year old son would say our house. Brian Jenkins, USA

My kitchen. Nilgun Graham, St Maarten

Exeter, England. And the people are the snottiest in all of the UK. They should move to Germany. David Stein, Canada

It has to be the Isle of Man. Described as '70,000 alcoholics clinging to a rock', it's hard to hold a sober conversation. The only interesting thing to do is count your tax-free money. Simon Mitchell, Australia

Without doubt the most boring place on earth, and I have travelled extensively around it, is Pinner in north west London. They have taken suburbia to its ultimate extreme and, like American cheese, have pasteurised and sanitised it to such an extent that it is bland, boring, disappointing and almost intolerable. William Weinstein, USA

Limerick, Ireland, boring, boring, boring! S Kenney, USA

Jackson, AL, and I challenge anyone to beat it. A dry county (no alcohol, legally), with a lot of hypocrites at that, two restaurants that are not "fast food", and you will not make a friend or get help from anyone if you weren't born there. I can document cases on that. Cibby Krell, USA

I lived for 6 months in a rural Virginian area (it wasn't even a town) that really had nothing going for it but some really potent "country air". My dad's apt comment when he visited was, "If I lived here I'd be drunk by noon!" MA, USA

Mattoon, Illinois, USA, is the MOST boring place on the face of the planet. It is of interest to geologists because it is as flat as a pancake...geologists travel to marvel at the sheer dullness of the landscape. For variety and excitement, you can watch the soybeans grow. Once a year the city hosts the world's largest bagel breakfast, where they line tables up and down the main street and celebrate the fact that there is still one factory (the bagel plant) in town that hasn't shut down. Except for that one day a year, where the newspapers are full of the same quotes as the previous year ('Bagels are OK, but I'd rather have a donut') the flat countryside and the soybeans are basically as exciting as it gets. Lynda Schemansky, USA

Sunderland is the most boring place in the world. Dreary and dismal, no life in the city and the inhabitants are miserable and rude. James Murray, USA

I've only travelled within North America so I can only give my opinion on boring places within that continent. I am sure however that there are many places that are boring around the world which I have yet to enjoy. The most boring place I have been to in Canada would have to be Wawa, Ontario. This town, like hundreds of others, has absolutely no character to it. Life in this town revolves around your pickup truck, the mini-mall and Thursday evening TV. I'm sure that this occurs all over the place but Wawa stood out amongst the other lack-lustre towns that dot Canada. For the US I don't have a specific place to name. I think the generic "suburbia" of the US is mind-numbing. Mexico may seem like the most exciting place to me simply because it's so foreign to my culture. Christopher Hutchinson, Canada

Anywhere in the USA!!! All there is, is a bunch of overpriced stuff crammed into malls!! Yuck! If I want to be ripped off I'll stay at home and buy a car. Willa Bradshaw, Canada

Enough of the existentialist rubbish - Reading in England. Closely followed by Le Havre in Normandy, France. Some places are just intrinsically boring. David Drum, USA/Ireland

The most boring place I've been to would definitely be Bakersfield, California (USA). The shopping mall is the only distinguishing feature in a town of 250,000 people. It's at least
2 hours away from any major city, basically near a big desert with not many places to go to. And yup it's hot. Sandeep Sodhi, USA

I think New Zealand would be pretty boring, but having said that I've never been. But the only interests seem to be snow and sheep. Larelle Read, Australia

Yikes, this may not go down too well, but Canada is a rather boring place. I used to think that Canadians were wrong when they complained that this country had no identity of its own, but they have since convinced me! Strip Plazas and Shopping Malls. Straight roads and traffic jams. Night life is very limited and theater culture is the latest musical. The people are hard pressed to understand a well turned phrase and the "sitcom" is king of prime time. If I hear one more DJ hack out more forced laughter, I'm going to break my radio. They cannot go from the stupid to the sublime, because there is no sublime in Canada, it all went south, where it got shot trying to buy a six pack in a late night smoke shop. All I want is a decent chat in a decent pub with a decent beer. I'll forget the theater, but how about a windy road and a car with some soul. I'll trade the content for a well turned phrase. I'll burn the malls for a wet high street and a decent bakers.Roy Mayer,
Canada - Ex Pat Brit